What kind of bird? And is this real?

[jharvey963]

I just saw this gif on reddit. I found it pretty hilarious. Maybe that says something about me.

Anyway, what kind of bird is this? And is this real? The bouncing part makes it look like a penguin. This is what makes me question if it is real.

J.

[DrFidelius]

Some small auk, probably a dovekie.

[Machine_Elf]

Found the reddit discussion. From it:

@kaeliera

This is a Brünnich’s guillemot (a type of seabird) fledgling trying to make it from its cliffside nest directly to the sea. They’re really not very good on land, and cliffs aren’t the best place to practice flying. So the safest thing for them to do is try to get from the cliffs to the sea in one shot.

Source: BBC Frozen Planet episode 4, “Autumn”, clip also on Youtube. Some of the chicks do make it safely to the water!

The referenced YouTube clip is here, in which it becomes more obvious that these are fledglings that just aren’t very good at flying yet. A couple of similar crash-landings are seen at 1:43, and the one in your GIF is at 1:57; for him, things end badly at 2:10.

[wguy123]

@Machine_Elf

in which it becomes more obvious that these are fledglings that just aren’t very good at flying yet.

Just the fledglings? Did you see the parents? They didn’t exactly stick the landings either. Seems like young and old alike use a bounce landing method, land or water.

[jharvey963]

The referenced YouTube clip is here, in which it becomes more obvious that these are fledglings that just aren’t very good at flying yet.

Seeing just the crash landing is pretty funny. Unfortunately, after watching the whole video, my enjoyment has been tempered a little…

J.

[wguy123]

Yeah, I quickly went from laughing to “ohhhh”.